What happens when you set off to build a sustainable business around open source software?

In this episode of Open Matters, Richard Brock speaks with Lucie Lesage from Jeci, the French company behind the open-source document management platform Pristy.

Lucie explains how Jeci grew from one developer providing Alfresco services into a team building its own open-source product. We discuss finding the first customers, selling software before every feature was finished, setting prices, earning trust, and learning to let other developers contribute to something that began as one person’s code.

We also explore why Jeci chose Collabora Online for document editing, how open source gives customers confidence that their software can continue even if a supplier disappears, and why “free software” does not mean software that costs nothing.

Topics include:

• Growing from services into a product company
• Winning and supporting the first customers
• Pricing open-source software
• Building Pristy on top of Alfresco
• Why Jeci chose Collabora Online
• Free as in freedom—not free of cost
• Open-source and French-first business principles
• Pristy Marchés and future product plans

🔔 Subscribe for more discussions on open-source tech!
iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/open-matters-podcast/id1807042369
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4frqRzV9DsAC0HfJ3ewaeD
RSS: https://www.collaboraonline.com/feed/mp3/

The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the views of Collabora Productivity or its affiliates. The content is provided for informational purposes only and should not be considered official guidance or fact-checked technical documentation.

00:00 Intro
01:01 How did you first get into OSS?
01:53 How did that shape how you think about software today?
02:28 What is Jeci?
03:03 This wasn’t the original direction?
04:14 Are you a product or services company?
04:57 What was difficult about the early days?
05:28 What drove the change?
06:03 What was COVID like?
07:28 Is that when you discovered Collabora Online?
08:19 Did you consider alternatives?
09:12 Transitioning from a single developer to a team
10:09 How did you pitch the new idea?
12:11 Pricing difficulties
13:30 How to find customers?
15:35 How are things growing now?!
17:05 Free vs. freedom
20:16 Changes to Alfresco and Nuxeo
21:46 Lucie’s experience leading marketing
26:26 Is everything on-premise at Jeci?
27:23 Future plans!